ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with heavy metals, especially lead, cadmium, chromium, and mercury, that are environmental contaminants found in most foods in the human food chain. Apart from their chemical definition, heavy metals can also be classified on the basis of their toxicity in humans. This classification identifies the following elements as exemplary heavy metals: As, Bi, Cd, Hg, In, Pb, Se, Sb, and Tl. Heavy metals such as Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, and As were added to the base material to obtain the certified reference materials. Several types of inorganic pigments have been banned due to restrictions on the use of heavy metals like Cd and Pb. The progress in understanding the toxicological relevance of the presence of heavy metals in food packaging is dependent primarily on the possibility of exactly determining their content in selected matrices, and consequently on the further development of sensitive, accurate, fast, and precise analytical methods.
